(no subject)

I was going to do this last night, but I was so exhausted when I got home from work I could barely manage to make myself a cup of tea. Honestly, I felt like I'd spent the day in the middle of a whirlwind. CCU can be like that, lots of traffic in and out, patients coming in from other hospitals upcountry for angiograms and other procedures, patients being transferred from Emergency, etc. There is a lot of interventional stuff that happens in our hospital, and the focus is on getting the person having the heart attack up to the Cath lab ASAP, to have the procedure to open up any blocked arteries etc. It means that people get admitted, get treated and get discharged within a few days; it's really unlike the ICU in that regard, where the patients tend to be very sick in a different way, and end up in ICU for days or weeks. I like CCU a lot, because there is so much more interaction with the people I'm looking after; in ICU there's not a lot of opportunity for conversations with my patients as a rule, they're too sick. In CCU I've had the opportunity to talk with the people I'm nursing, to do some teaching, to listen to their worries, and I've found that quite satisfying. I get feedback too, and it's very pleasant to hear from someone that I have helped, that I've made their day easier, that my work is appreciated. A woman told me the other day that she thought I was a very professional, kind and caring nurse, and that I had a good way with people. That really does feel nice, hearing that I'm making a difference. Kind of the reason I went into nursing in the first place. But some days it can be crazy busy, and by the end of the day I'm peopled out. I was glad I didn't have to work again today.

I went out to the farm this afternoon. I spent some time cleaning up the garden; the beans are done, and I had to pick all the green tomatoes because they're not going to ripen on the vine. I don't want to take the chance that they'll rot instead of ripen, so I'm going to let them ripen inside. Maybe try some fried green tomatoes. I pulled all the bean plants, picked the last cucumber and pulled that plant out too. Still have lots of Swiss Chard, Collard greens and Kale left, and the last planting of salad greens is growing. I have a whole mountain of squash out on the manure pile.....I picked a whole wheelbarrow full the other day and hardly made a dent. I'm thinking I may contact the local food bank to see if they want a donation of tasty fresh squash. My friends are starting to run the other way when they see me coming armed with squash. LOL. I ate a whole acorn squash for dinner tonight, with a small steak, baked potato and swiss chard. The squash was the best part of the meal.

My horses (Midnight and Rochelle) are still out in the field. There's still lots of grass, and we feed them hay in the afternoon. Midnight is quite porky, and Rochelle has good weight, so we're letting them stay out there as long as the weather holds. We generally close the field at the end of October. I put rainsheets on both of them this afternoon, so if it rains they'll stay dry. Rochelle hasn't really worn a blanket before, but she was very good about having it put on. She tugged at the front of the sheet a few times, and ran and bucked a bit to see if it would come off, then went and ate hay. Hopefully it will still be on when I get out there tomorrow! Midnight better not teach her any of his blanket removing tricks.......

I have to stop in at the Auto Glass repair place this week; I was driving along the other day and a rock flew up from a truck in front of me and dinged the windshield of my car. :(

The house is getting closer and closer to completion. The Tile guys were there this week, putting down the paving stones on the patio outside my apartment, and on the patio at the back of the house, and on the path alongside the house that leads to my patio. It looks fabulous. Nearly there!

All in all there's enough going on to keep me busy. No time to get bored, that's for sure.